Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
David has also posted this presentation on his website and notes that he’s happy to share the presentation slides without copyright. David notes:
[…]I have purposely not copyrighted this work so that anyone is free to modify it as they see fit. The only thing I ask is that if you make changes that you do not copyright the derivative work as your own intellectual property so that others can benefit from your knowledge and build upon it as well.
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio
Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’sRadio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
On January 2nd 1923, John Reith interviewed Miss Frances Isobel Shields for a job at the BBC, to be his secretary. At the time the BBC had four or five male staff members. Miss Shields started work on January 8th, instantly making the BBC a 20% female organisation. It’s been greater than that ever since.
This episode’s fab guest is Dr Kate Murphy: academic, former producer of BBC’s Woman’s Hour and author of Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC. Her book is brilliant and highly recommended for a deep dive into the subject.
Hear Isobel Shields’ tale, plus the women who broadcast before her: Britain’s first DJ Gertrude Donisthorpe, 2LO’s first children’s presenter Vivienne Chatterton, and one of our first broadcast comedians Helena Millais. (You can hear their fuller tales if you go back to the earlier episodes on this podcast.)
And hear about some of the women who joined the BBC soon after Miss Shields, like telephonist Olive May and women’s staff supervisor Caroline Banks. Plus hear about some of John Reith’s unusual management practices, from taking his secretaries to the cinema to his brutal firing criteria.
But we dwell on his hiring not firing, as well tell the origin story of British broadcasting. [Continue reading…]
The link between The Exorcist, Amateur Radio and Alan Turing.
A quick look at how the movie The Exorcist from 1973 has links to the late great Alan Turing via Mike Oldfield’s album Tubular Bells, Scotland and Amateur Radio. It’s Halloween so figured why not throw some horror in the mix.
When Mike Oldfield recorded Tubular Bells in 1973 he had no idea his first album on Virgin Records would be chosen as the soundtrack to The Exorcist later that year. Neither did he know that recording with Virgin Records would have an unintended consequence of hiding a secret message which dates back to 1926, shortly after World War One.
Tubular Bells was famously recorded at The Manor Studio which was owned by Richard Branston and used as a recording studio for Virgin Records. The building is located in Shipton-on-Cherwell, England. Mike was given one week to record the album, on which he played almost all the instruments himself.
The album initially struggled to sell. Then, later the same year, it was chosen as the soundtrack for the movie The Exorcist. It then experienced massive success and has since sold over 15 million copies worldwide. [Continue reading…]
Roger Wallis from “The Saturday Show” on Radio Sweden passes away
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Lennart Wennberg, who notes:
Just got the news that Mr Roger Wallis has died at the age of 80.
I remember him from Radio Sweden’s Saturday Shows on MW in the 70s. He was “Big Bad Roger” and hosted together with Kangaroo Kim.
Roger Wallis (8 August 1941 – 22 January 2022) was a British-born Swedish musician, journalist and researcher.[1]. He was an adjunct professor of multimedia at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.[2]
Between 1967 and 1981, Wallis was the main presenter of the English language The Saturday Show on Radio Sweden. Wallis also co-wrote “Judy, min vän”.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who shares the following guest post:
VOA Information Pack 1983
by Mark Hirst
Introduction
A recent guest post on this blog by Jock Elliott asked the question, ‘Why Listen to Shortwave?’
The comment I left at the time was my interest in how nations view themselves, and how they project that view to the world. This might be in the form of cultural exports like music, or teaching us about famous people or revered institutions in their country.
When I first started listening to shortwave in the early eighties, I never got into the habit of asking for QSL cards, being quite thrilled enough to receive programme guides in envelopes stamped with the postmark of other countries.
At the time, the primary stations for me included Radio Netherlands, Radio Sweden, Swiss Radio International, and the Voice of America. While most might send a small leaflet about their country with a frequency schedule, the information pack I received from the Voice of America stands head and shoulders above the others.
I thought readers might be interested in a brief description of this pack and with it a glimpse back into the world of 1983.
Please note that as you read the following sections, you can click on the images to view a larger version.
Package Contents
The package arrived in a manila envelope, with the logo and address of the VOA printed in the top left corner. In the top right corner is the logo of US Mail, with a declaration that postage and fees where paid for by the US Information Agency.
Package contents included:
Compliments Card
VOA Sticker
Steering the Course Magazine
VOA Magazine
May-October 1983 Programme Schedule
VOA – The Voice of America
This guide begins by outlining the mission of the VOA, emphasising its aim to be an authoritative and reliable source of news. Continue reading →
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Day (N1DAY), for sharing the following guest post:
Crystal Radios – Construction, Listening, and Contesting
By David Day – N1DAY
The date was November 2, 1920 and the world was about to change forever when radio station KDKA out of Pittsburgh PA made its first broadcast of election results from the 1920 presidential election. For the first time in history people knew who won the election before reading about it the next day in the newspaper. Radio had arrived!
However, hearing the election results was not as easy as powering up an AM radio receiver because radio electron tubes had only been invented a few years earlier and they were still too expensive for most people to afford in a radio set. After KDKA’s historic broadcast, large 50,000 watt stations began popping up in all major cities around the world. Even though a tube-driven radio was not yet commonplace, many people listened to these stations on their crystal radios. The frenzy around radio in the 1920’s was not unlike the excitement around cell phones and the internet today. If you didn’t have one, you were simply living in the past.
A family listening to a crystal radio in the 1920’s
Fortunately, in the early 1920’s the crystal radio had been around for a while and it was easy to make or purchase a completed set on a limited budget. The beauty of the radio was that it was a passive device needing no power source other than the radio station’s broadcast that was received by a good antenna about 50 feet long and 15 or so feet above the ground. Crystal radios derived their name from use of galena crystals as detectors. Continue reading →
Video description: Author Matt Zullo is a retired U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer who has more than 35 years’ experience in Radio Intelligence, now more commonly known as Communications Intelligence. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University, where he researched and wrote his master’s thesis on the On-the-Roof Gang, which tells the story of story of the 176 Sailors and Marines who, starting in 1921, learned the Japanese katakana telegraphic code in order to intercept Imperial Japanese Navy communications, setting in motion events that would lead to the birth of the US Navy’s communications intelligence organization. Join Matt in this “AWA Shares” presentation as he discusses the importance of this pioneering effort in signals intelligence.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Grayhat, who writes:
With the sponsorship of UNESCO, two “on air” events will take place February and April, 2022. The events will be the UNESCO World Radio Day and the International Marconi Day 2022
23 to 25 April 2022
From 00:00 UTC of 23 Apr to 23:59 UTC of 25 Apr
(72 hours)
For further information, click on the event names above.
Thank you for the tip! I do note that UNESCO has yet to post details about WRD this year, but I believe they typically publish information only a couple of weeks before the event.
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio
Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’sRadio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Trevor, Dennis Dura, and Markku Koskinen for the following tips:
Its broadcasting territory is restricted and unlikely to grow significantly, and for good reason. Since 1982, Radio Atlantique has been broadcasting in the heart of the French overseas territory of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a 252 square kilometers, self-governing Atlantic clump of islands just off the south coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland. The radio station has cultivated its uniqueness, becoming a key partner in the local life and cohesion of the 6,000 or so Miquelonnais. However, this state of mind has not prevented the project from going through difficult times and bringing uncertainties to its future.
Broadcasting in the territory of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is an extraordinary adventure every day. For example, coverage of the entire archipelago was only concluded in 2010 with effective broadcasting in Miquelon, only 18 nautical miles away from the main island. This challenge for the station has only reinforced its unique place within the islands’ society. The population on the islands is highly mixed, and the vast majority of the inhabitants have French and Basque origins. [Continue reading…]
Within seconds, the Toronto pop singer’s silky voice wafts from the speakers of the ELS Studio audio system of my Acura MDX. Ten speakers in the cabin pump out trilling highs and chest-thumping bass, transforming my vehicle into a soothing audio studio on wheels. Bored, I flip over to SiriusXM for a little Hip-Hop Nation.
Modern car audio systems are so highly evolved, so seamless and so intuitive, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always this way. But it’s been 90 years since the first mass-produced car radio appeared, and the road to audio perfection has been a bumpy one indeed.
Michael Lamm remembers. At 84, the California-based auto historian’s car-ownership experience spans back to the early 1950s, when staticky car radios were powered by primitive vacuum tubes.
When he was growing up in Texas, he says he “didn’t really care that much about radio,” in part because programming was so limited. “I didn’t listen to the preachers who were constantly haranguing everybody.” [Continue reading…]
Many thanks to SWLing Post Contributor, David Day (N1DAY), who shares the video presentation below, offering even more insight into his most recent guest post on the topic of crystal radio DXing.
